Quotes

"Everybody has that one thing from childhood that they remember and that sticks with them. This story was that for me."

"I didn't want someone else to do it, because I was afraid that they would go out and do it different from the comic and screw it up."

"I made a bunch of movies that didn't work. I was ending up in the tabloids. I don't know what the lesson is, except that you just have to find your compass. I liked Sum of All Fears. Daredevil I didn't at all. Some movies should have worked and didn't. At a certain point, it's just up to the movie gods. Anyway, this image becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And I just said, "I don't want to do it anymore. This is horrible. I don't want to be in this spotlight, this glare, in this way. It's tawdry, it's ugly, it's oppressive, and it's inane. So I'm going to try to get away." And most of the way I did that was by not acting. I said, "I'm going to steer myself toward directing. I'm going to do something that takes me toward a place where the work that I do is reflective of what I think is interesting dramatically"."

"I would if there was one I liked. I had a negative experience with the one comic book I liked, it was just a movie that didn't work. It's such a shame, because, first of all, Daredevil is a great book, great idea, and then right after that, they figured out that it was better to make the movies good, and then they started making them cool and investing in them. I felt like I was in the 1930s with that outfit, the trousers: 'Hey, chum, hold up there! This fella's trying to rob a bank!' It was a drag, but I did love it as a kid, and they're rebooting it. I got contacted about it, and I was like, 'That wouldn't be a reboot if I was involved,' but I really hope they do a good job, because that's a great property and deserves something really, really good."

"I would love to do [a comic book movie] if it was the right one, if I thought I could do it well. I think you have to, with any movie, have an idea for it that's original and unique and committed to it, and that's a hard thing to find."

"I understand I’m at a disadvantage with the internet. If I thought the result would be another Daredevil, I’d be out there picketing myself. [laughs] Why would I make the movie if I didn’t think it was going to be good and that I can be good in it? The only movie I actually regret is Daredevil. It just kills me. I love that story, that character, and the fact that it got [frick]ed up the way it did stays with me. Maybe that’s part of the motivation to do Batman."

"Daredevil didn’t work, at all. If I wanted to go viral I would be less polite,. That was before people realized you could make these movies and make them well. There was a cynical sense of ‘Put a red leather outfit on a guy, have him run around, hunt some bad guys, and cash the check.’"